Syria threatens Qatari investments

Syrian President Bashar Assad has reportedly threatened Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim with the loss of his country’s investment in Syria.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has reportedly threatened Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim with the loss of his country’s investment in Syria which amounts to US$ 6 billion.

The threat was made during a recent meeting in Damascus when the embattled Syrian leader protested the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV’s coverage of the ongoing popular unrest in Syria.

Political sources described the meeting between Assad and Sheikh Hamad as “bad.” Assad also said during the heated exchanges of words that Qatar “bought” the hosting of the 2022 Football World Cup in return for about US$ 100 billion and “this was not the way to approach the situation in Syria.”

In the past year, the Syrian media reported that the National Electricity Company, Water Company and the Syrian-Qatari Holding Company – established by the two countries in 2007 with a total capital of US$5 billion – will build and operate two power stations working on gas. The total investments in these two 450-megawatt projects in Syria were put at US$1 billion. It was expected to be built in Dir Azour town in northeastern Syria and in the industrial area of Adra, near Damascus.

Recently, Qatari Diar, the real estate arm of the Qatar Investment Authority, has announced it stopped investment projects in Syria until the security situation clears up. Diar is developing the Ibn Hani Bay Resort project in the port city of Lattakia which will cost around US$ 350 million. The luxury real estate project began in January 2010 and stretches over 244,000 square meters on the Ibn Hani coast. Source: www.yallafinance.com[1].